Schedule Anything
BayCare offers several convenient health care services that help get care you need to get back to feeling better.
St. Joseph's Hospital-North Celebrates 15th Birthday on Feb. 15
February 08, 2025
St. Joseph’s Hospital-North celebrates its 15th birthday on February 15, 2025 marking 15 years of growth and service to the north Tampa community.
St. Joseph’s Hospital-North provides comprehensive inpatient and outpatient medical and surgical services in more than 20 specialties including breast health, cancer, gastroenterology, heart and vascular, interventional radiology, maternity, orthopedics and urology. The hospital features all-private inpatient rooms. The emergency room also features all private rooms for adult and pediatric patients, plus a fast-track area for expedited treatment of minor emergencies.
When it opened 15 years ago, St. Joseph’s Hospital-North became the first full-service hospital to open in Hillsborough County since 1985.
The hospital had major expansions in 2020 and 2018.
In 2020, St. Joseph’s Hospital-North:
- Added two patient floors and increased licensed bed capacity to its current total of 210. St. Joseph’s Hospital-North opened in 2010 with a licensed bed capacity of 108. This 2020 expansion almost doubled bed capacity.
- Increased ICU beds from 12 to 24.
- Opened a new infusion and chemotherapy center that can treat up to 15 patients at one time. The infusion and chemotherapy center relocated to the current Lutz campus to accommodate growth and improve patient convenience.
- Increased areas for respiratory and physical therapy.
- Expanded the clinical engineering area.
- Added a dialysis unit.
A prior expansion in 2018 added four operating rooms to the bring the total of operating rooms to eight. Also in 2018, the Lutz hospital opened additional gastrointestinal endoscopy services.
Most recently, in February 2025, an additional mammography suite for diagnostic breast mammograms and biopsies was added.
Other additions include the hospital’s Unit for Psychiatry and Medicine (UPM). The UPM, which opened in 2023, is a mental health and psychiatry unit.
In 2024, in partnership with Tampa Bay community organization CUP (an acronym for Coffee Uniting People), the hospital opened a coffeehouse staffed by people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
As another example of growth, St. Joseph’s Hospital-North is using the opportunity of its 15th birthday to announce the opening of a NICU. The NICU is scheduled to open in the third quarter of 2025.
The NICU will supplement St. Joseph’s Hospital-North’s labor and delivery unit and Mother & Baby unit. St. Joseph’s Hospital-North’s NICU will offer “couplet care.” Mother and baby will be in the same room.
“Traditionally, mom and baby would have to go to separate rooms,” said Sara Dodds, St. Joseph’s Hospital-North president. “Our NICU will enable mom and baby to stay together from the very start.”
Achievements, highlights and accolades for the Lutz hospital include:
- St. Joseph’s Hospital-North earned 4-stars in the latest Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Hospital Quality Star Ratings Report. The star rating system allows people to find and compare information about the quality of care at more than 4,000 Medicare-certified hospitals across the country. The highest rating in the CMS report is 5 stars and St. Joseph’s Hospital-North is among only 40% of hospitals nationally to earn a 4 or 5-star rating.
- St. Joseph’s Hospital-North is accredited as a Center of Excellence in Robotic Surgery by the Surgical Review Corporation (SRC). The SRC is a leading national, independent, external evaluator of programs and services for surgeons and hospitals. The designation signifies St. Joseph’s Hospital-North’s robotic surgery services provide the highest quality of care to patients.
- The hospital received 2024 American Heart Association “Get With The Guidelines®-Stroke Silver Plus and Target: StrokeSM Elite Honor Roll quality achievement awards for its commitment to ensuring stroke patients receive the most appropriate treatment according to nationally recognized, research-based guidelines.
- The hospital is LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certified by the U.S. Green Building Council. LEED certification is a globally recognized symbol of environmental sustainability.
“There is a lot I am proud of,” said Dodds, who has been St. Joseph’s Hospital-North president since April 2023. Dodds is an original team member at the hospital and among 80 other team members who have been at the hospital since opening in 2010. The hospital has more than 1,000 team members today and opened with less than 500 in its first year.
“We have gone through a lot of growth and additions of services,” she said. “I am proud of the team we have created and culture that we have maintained over the last 15 years. As north Tampa continues to grow, we do also, with a commitment to continue offering our patients compassionate care along with modern medicine.”